The New Politics

David Cameron has achieved a settlement that will provide strong, stable government and change the way that politics is conducted

Outside Downing Street, David Cameron’s first words as Prime Minister captured the values that make Britain a fine nation and defined the revolutionary state that British politics has now entered. A coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will, he said, be dedicated to freedom, fairness and responsibility. The coalition provides Britain with the stable government that it needs at a time of economic peril. It also closes a period of partisanship and brings forth the politics of compromise and co-operation. The unspoken truth is that decent liberal people exist in all parties and this coalition holds out the promise that they can act in the common good, across the usual lines.

After four days of wrangling behind closed doors, the sort of thing to which the British have an allergy, it seemed unlikely that any deal could send a bolt of energy and optimism through the nation’s politics. And yet it did exactly that. The generosity and optimism of Mr Cameron’s acceptance speech and the remarkable sight of Tories and Lib Dems lauding each other was a signal that the expenses scandal has changed politics for good, in both senses of that word...(Read More)